
IRTS RADIO NEWS BULLETIN - Sunday 16th of October 1994

This news bulletin was compiled and edited by Steve Wright,
EI5DD, in conjunction with the members of the Galway VHF Group.

AN INTERESTING PROPAGATION ANOMALY ON 2 METRES.

On the 13th of May 1994 Tony Allen was tuning around the high
end of two metres using his FT 225 RD. Quite by surprise, the
voice of Bill, VO1OR, calling CQ on FM broke through the band
noise. A note was written to Bill asking which satellite he was
working through and a report on the signal was also given. On
September the 14th 1994 a reply was received and a quantity of
information and maps were enclosed along with information about
the satellites that Bill regularly works. Needless to say Bill
was quite surprised at the report that he received. The
interesting development was that Bill was operating on the
uplink of the satellite at the time and mistakingly used FM
instead of LSB on the occasion. Regrettably Bill would not have
been listening on 2 metres as the satellites work on full duplex
and his listening frequency would have been on  435 MHz. The
satellite in question did not have a downlink on two metres and
to Bill's knowledge there were no other satellites that would
have fulfilled the criteria in question. On Bill's side of the
water there were lengthy discussions about this development as
the path length was around 2,000 miles making it unlikely that
the signal was propagated via Sporadic E or Meteor Scatter. The
only other explanation was a high flying object of some
description. A QSL card was also sent to Tony confirming the SWL
report. This is obviously a first for an SWL report. Is it
possible to make a direct two way transmission on 2 metres
across the pond?

FINGAL RADIO CLUB NEWS.

On Sunday the 2nd of October, Fingal Radio Club held its second
Radio Rally of the year. Despite the bad weather, this event
continues to draw the largest number of amateurs and SWL's from
all parts of Ireland to this venue in Ballsbridge. Club members
were present as early as 7:30 am on the Sunday morning to
prepare and clean the ballroom after the previous night's
cabaret. With an excellent turnout of traders and exhibitors,
everybody was busy helping set up the stands and getting the
equipment moved quickly into the hall and out of the clutches of
the inclement weather. As the scene was set the doors opened at
11:30 am and a steady flow of punters flowed through the doors
to make it the largest ever attendance at this venue. One of the
striking features of this rally is that, despite the large
number of punters and traders, there was considerable ease in
moving around from stand to stand. Traders reported a busy
afternoon as a wide range of equipment exchanged hands
Congratulations to Terry Taffe, from Lucan Co. Dublin, who
became the winner of the first prize in the grand draw. Fingal
Radio Club would like to thank all who attended and supported
this event and look forward to meeting everyone next spring. The
Committee would like to thank all the club members who assisted
all day long and contributed to the smooth running of the event.

FOXHUNT RESULTS.

Fingal Radio Club held its second Foxhunt on Sunday the 25th of
September near Swords, Co. Dublin. The Foxhunt got underway at
1:30pm as the participants sought out the three foxes - Eddie,
EI6GU, Liam, EI3HK, and Harry EI9BW. The foxhunt finished at 4pm
and prizes were presented to the winners at Bellewstown
Racecourse. The following is a list of the winners.


               1st  Peter  EI7GV

               2nd Rod EI7DF & Hans (SWL)

               3rd Denis EI4DZB & Ken (SWL)

               4th Charlie EI2EM

TELFORD RALLY.

At the recent Telford Rally, held on the 3rd of September,
members of the Fingal Radio Club set up a club stand in which
information about the club was readily available. This show,
held in the Telford Exhibition Centre every year, is attended by
amateurs from all parts of Europe. The stand was visited by
amateurs from all parts of the UK, a UA, a W2 and a PE1
operator. Questions on all aspects of the hobby in EI were
answered. This proved to be a successful trip for the club and
the members are hoping to make a return trip to Telford next
year.

Every Monday night, over the past few weeks, the Fingal Radio
club and Cork Radio Club have been maintaining a sked on 80
metres. This sked, which begins at 21:30 local on 3.650 MHz is
being used to give the B callsigns and SWL members, whilst under
supervision, operating experience on the HF bands. The club HF
station, which includes an Icom 735 tranceiver and a home-made
G5RV antenna, will be used to maintain the sked over the winter
months.

Members of Fingal Radio Club are reminded that the AGM is being
held on the 24th of October and it is important that all attend.

ONCE AGAIN a special request from the Radio News Editor is made
to  all radio groups to send in regular reports of club
activities. To date, it has been a pleasure to write the script
but it is only possible with regular contributions of club
information.

ITEMS FOR INCLUSION.

Items for inclusion in the Radio News Bulletins should be
addressed to Steve Wright, EI5DD, C/o Department of Pathology,
Regional Hospital, Galway. FAX messages may be sent to EI5DD at
091-24216. All items included in the Radio News Bulletins will
be passed on to Dave, EI4BZ, for inclusion in the monthly
newsletter. Items for inclusion in the Printed News should be
sent to Dave Moore, EI4BZ, at QTHR, phoned to 021-632444 during
the day, or to 021-883555 in the evenings. Items may be sent by
Packet Radio to EI4BZ at EI7DKB-5. Fax messages may be sent to
021-632730.

TEXT ENDS.
